Cochrane-born Hannah Airey has been selected to represent Team Alberta with Team Bakker at the U18 National Curling Championships in Saint Andrews, NB., from April 9 to 14.
Fourteen teams are competing for the national title, where Team Alberta will look to be one of the four teams coming out of their seven-team pool to make the first round of the playoff portion of the tournament. Once the first round is decided, the four winners will advance to the championship round.
Airey, who is the lead on Team Alberta, said that being named to the provincial team is something she’s thought about from the minute she started curling.
“Being the lead, I determine how the end will play out. If I drop a guard early in the game we will be into the play right away which will not give us a chance to learn the ice as well but if I place my first rock in the house we will have a nice clean end to learn the ice and how it runs,” Airey said.
“This has been a dream of mine since I started curling. I am so thankful that I have this opportunity since many kids do not get to compete at this level. I am so excited that I keep forgetting that I have Canada Winter Games trials this weekend.”
“It keeps slipping my mind and I just jump ahead to April 6, which is the day we fly out. I am also super excited since I get to share this experience with my family and some of my best friends.”
Team Alberta will open up their tournament on April 9 against Nova Scotia before taking on Manitoba, Northern Ontario, Newfoundland, Quebec and New Brunswick. The team earned a spot in the national tournament after winning the Alberta U18 Championships on March 6.
Airey, who is a student at St. Timothy High School, was very pleased with how her team played throughout the duration of the Alberta Championships and hopes to carry that momentum into Nationals.
“We played very well as a team the entire event (The Alberta Championships). As always there were bumps in the road that we had to get over but as always, we got over them and kept on rolling. We came through the C qualifier, which is the very last qualifier that there is,” Airey said.
“We had to battle hard to get to that championship game. Even though we were tired and had a few injuries we all supported each other and motivated each other to push through and get to that final game. Once we got there the nerves really set in but when we got out onto the ice everything was rolling. We all handled the nerves very well and knew we had a job to do. The first few ends were a little scary but the back half we all played the lights out and came out with the gold medal.”
“Our goal all year has been to win U18 nationals. We know that this is a very high expectation but we are all ready to work as hard as we need to in order to get there. One of our smaller goals is to make it to the top four, which is the championship round.”
“We know nothing about any of the other teams since we never play them. We can take guesses from how the provinces and territories did the previous years but we don’t even know who the teams are yet and they are most likely completely different teams from previous years.”
“We have played in many bonspiels all year and, in every event, we have made it to the championship Sunday. We have also come through the C event many times including the southern playdowns, which has made us more resilient compared to other teams.”
“We have overcome obstacles such as injuries and sickness, which has made us play with three players a few times. All of this has made us more mentally tough plus it has made us work harder on our communication on and off the ice. All of these factors will help us at U18 Nationals since we are experienced in many ways that some other teams may not have been.”
Those interested in following Airey and Team Alberta came find the results on www.curling.ca/2018under18.
